BRITISH COLONIAL POLICIES AND THE ORIGINS OF ASSAMESE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA

This article provides a historical analysis of the origins of the Assamese nationalist movement in Northeast India, arguing that its roots lie deep in the policies of the British colonial period. It examines how the British annexation of Assam in the 19th century and its integration into the colonial economy fundamentally transformed the region's demographic and social landscape. The study focuses on two key colonial policies. The first is the large-scale, state-sponsored migration of Bengali administrative workers and professionals into Assam to staff the colonial bureaucracy. The second is the massive influx of migrant labor from other parts of India to work in the newly established tea plantations. The research argues that these demographic changes created a deep-seated anxiety among the indigenous Assamese people about becoming a minority in their own homeland. The paper concludes that this colonial-era legacy of demographic anxiety is the foundational source of modern Assamese nationalism and its long-standing and often-violent "anti-foreigner" agitation.

The Assamese nationalist movement, a powerful and persistent force in the politics of Northeast India, cannot be understood without a deep appreciation of its historical origins in the British colonial era. This paper provides such a historical analysis. The study begins by detailing the process through which the previously independent kingdom of Assam was incorporated into British India. The core of the article is an examination of the transformative and disruptive impact of two specific sets of colonial policies. The first was administrative. The paper details how the British, for their own administrative convenience, imported a large number of educated Bengalis to fill the lower and middle ranks of the new colonial administration, creating a new, Bengali-dominated professional class that was often seen as culturally alien by the indigenous Assamese. The second set of policies was economic. The paper provides a detailed account of the establishment of the tea industry, the centerpiece of the colonial economy in Assam, and the corresponding policy of importing vast numbers of tribal laborers from Central India to work in the plantations, as the local population was unwilling to do so. The findings reveal how these two streams of colonial-sponsored migration fundamentally altered the demographic profile of the Brahmaputra valley. The paper concludes that this experience created a powerful sense of cultural and demographic insecurity among the Assamese-speaking population, a fear of being marginalized and overwhelmed by "outsiders." This fear, the paper argues, is the foundational grievance that has animated the Assamese nationalist movement from the colonial period to the present day.